Tenants are now celebrating that the eviction ban has been extended. What would you like to know

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“I’m the happiest guy in the world,” Leonard said.

“If I find myself on the streets, I will never survive,” Leonard, 68, said at the time.

With a deportation complaint filed against him in April, the moratorium – put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last September – was all that held him home.

CDC announces limited, targeted moratorium on evictions until early October
Leonard has a pending request for a portion of the $ 46 billion in federal rent relief that has been set aside. He had hoped that the help would arrive in time to allow him to pay his rent of almost $ 6,000. But the money did not arrive until the end of the first deportation ban.

“I bit my fingernails until they bleed,” Leonard said of the days he was unprotected. “I was nervous waiting for the sheriff’s blow.”

The Biden administration’s extension of the moratorium on evictions in areas with high coronavirus transmission rates, including where Leonard lives in Florida, will completely change his life, he said.

The extension will give him time to get rent relief money to his landlord and get an income-based retirement home where he can afford to live on his fixed income.

“I’m going to focus a little longer on the blessing of having a roof over my head,” he said. “There are millions of us. My heart is no longer bleeding for single mothers and people with young children who have to pledge everything to prevent them from being deported. They are also protected.”

Who is now protected?

Unlike the previous ban, the new protection will be more limited, targeting the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus. It will protect people in areas of the country with “high” or “substantial” transmission of Covid-19 based on CDC tracking of the virus and will last until October 3.

As of August 1, more than 80% of US counties were classified as having “substantial” or “high” levels of community transmission. The Biden administration said those areas include 90% of tenants.

Areas with lower transmission rates, including parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, and Vermont, are not covered. But the protection is cantonal. Renters can search for their county on the CDC’s website to see if they are covered by this new ban.

According to the ordinance, if a county that is not covered on August 3 becomes an area with “substantial” or “high” levels of community transmission before the ordinance expires, that area becomes covered on the day the ordinance expires. county is starting to experience these higher levels of transmission.

On the other hand, counties currently covered will drop out of eviction protection by the ordinance once the county runs out of “substantial” or “high” transmission levels for 14 consecutive days.

To be protected by the ban, an eligible tenant must provide a written statement to their landlord. Any tenant who has previously made a declaration will remain covered, according to the new decree. But any evictions that were carried out while the old protection expired – August 1, 2 or 3 – is not covered, as the order does not have retroactive effect.

The clock has been reset

Housing advocates applauded the CDC’s renewed moratorium and expressed hope that state and local governments could speed up the distribution of rental relief before October.

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“This is a huge relief for the millions of people who were on the verge of losing their homes and, with them, their ability to stay safe during the pandemic,” said Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

With a small fraction of the $ 46 billion in emergency rent relief already distributed and many programs now operational, there is a race to deliver that money to those who need it by October to keep tenants. housed and ensure that the owners are unharmed.

“Now the work of state and local governments to distribute emergency rental aid to tenants in need becomes all the more critical. The president has given them the time that they and millions of tenants need – they must use it effectively and speed up aid, ”Yentel says. “The country is watching, and the tenants and landlords are waiting.”

Owners are frustrated

Meanwhile, homeowner groups are frustrated. They expressed shock at the about-face after the administration said it likely did not have the power to extend the moratorium.

“Is it possible for the federal government to create more uncertainty for tenants and rental owners in this country?” Asked David Howard, executive director of the National Rental Home Council, an industry group of homeowners.

“Shame on me for assuming the moratorium would not be extended after the President announced he had no legal authority to do so, and Congress was unable to pass legislation to meanwhile, rental home owners have lost billions of dollars that they will never lose. get back, “he said.

New order legal challenges are expected. In multiple lawsuits across the country, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, an organization aimed at protecting constitutional freedoms, argues that the moratorium on evictions exceeds the constitutional and statutory limits of the authority of the CDC.

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Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit dismissed a request to end the moratorium on evictions issued by the CDC. The NCLA said it now plans to appeal the ruling to the United States Supreme Court or return to a district court for trial.

“This is not the way government should operate, let alone how ‘laws’ are written,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, legal adviser to the NCLA. “If the CDC goes ahead, the courts must quickly put an end to the agency’s illegal actions.”

For lawyers working on behalf of panicked tenants, the news of the extension is welcome. But, they say, the new ordinance is likely to prove confusing for judges, lawyers, tenants and landlords already beset by changing regulations, the progression of court cases and varying levels of protection across the country.

The key will be to make sure the enforcement of the order is clear, said Caitlin Cedfeldt, a lawyer with Legal Aid Nebraska, and that tenants and defense lawyers know it.

“But any sort of limitation on evictions is a good thing now,” Cedfeldt said. “This will save my clients the time they need to have their rental assistance processed.”

If you are looking for emergency rental assistance, there is a searchable list of programs available at US Treasury as well as lists managed by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the National Housing Conference.

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